Romans ~ Part 38

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As I’ve stressed in my previous post, our journey to comprehend the profound significance of Sha’ul’s Letter to the Romans is not just a study but a crucial cornerstone of our faith.

Closing Remarks ~ Part 1

If your family struggles with conflicts and misunderstandings, reflect on Romans 15:14-29, where Sha’ul emphasizes unity and mutual encouragement. Organize a ‘family communication night’ where everyone can express their feelings freely and honestly. Use this time to practice active listening and seek to understand each other’s perspectives. Creating a culture of open communication within your home resolves conflicts and aligns your family with God’s desire for harmony among His people.

Reason for Writing

15 ¹⁴ Now I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and well able to counsel each other. ¹⁵ But on some points I have written you quite boldly by way of reminding you about them, because of the grace God has given me ¹⁶ to be a servant of the Messiah Yeshua for the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of presenting the Good News of God, so that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, made holy by the Ruach HaKodesh.

Sha’ul was convinced that God gifted the Roman Christians for effective service and healthy Kehilah life. God does not build His Kehilah without seeing to these needs. Yet Sha’ul also knew that God had uniquely called and equipped him as an apostle to the Gentiles. So what he wrote was sure to help the Roman house Kehillahs grow to maturity. He served as a priest offering the Gentiles to God and wanted this offering to be holy, acceptable, and pleasing to God (12:1–2).

Pride in Gentile Ministry

¹⁷ In union with the Messiah Yeshua, then, I have reason to be proud of my service to God; ¹⁸ for I will not dare speak of anything except what the Messiah has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by my words and deeds, ¹⁹ through the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit of God. So, from Yerushalayim all the way to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Good News of the Messiah.

Sha’ul wanted to boast of his service to God to the Roman believers about how God had used him to spread the good news all the way from Yerushalayim to the Roman province of Illyricum (modern Albania). God approved his ministry by authenticating signs and miracles and many conversions. The Roman Believers would have been comforted by this testimony, for it illustrated the secure basis on which they had rested their hopes for salvation.

²⁰ I have always made it my ambition to proclaim the Good News where the Messiah was not yet known so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation, ²¹ but rather, as the Tanakh puts it,

“Those who have not been told about him will see,

and those who have not heard will understand.” (Isaiah 52:15)

In ten years, God had used Sha’ul as a pioneer Kehilah planter in the eastern section of the Roman Empire. Sha’ul felt his ministry was in keeping with Tanakh Messianic prophecy (Isaiah 52:15). He was the planter; others would come water the soil, and God would give growth (1 Corinthians 3:3–9).

Future Travel Plans

²² This is also why I have so often been prevented from visiting you. ²³ But now, since there is no longer a place in these regions that needs me, and since I have wanted for many years to come to you, ²⁴ I hope to see you as I pass through on my way to Spain and to have you help me travel there after I have enjoyed your company awhile.

God’s work for Sha’ul in the eastern half of the Roman Empire had kept him from going to Rome sooner, but now the job was completed, and he planned to pass through Rome on a mission trip to the western part of the Roman Empire (Spain). Why Spain? Apparently, “the Messiah was not yet known” in that province (v. 20 above). Scholars differ over whether he succeeded in getting there. The Bible does not record a Spanish mission for Sha’ul.

²⁵ But now I am going to Yerushalayim with aid for God’s people there. ²⁶ For Macedonia and Achaia thought it would be good to make some contribution to the poor among God’s people in Yerushalayim. ²⁷ They were pleased to do it, but the fact is that they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared with the Jews in spiritual matters, then the Gentiles clearly have a duty to help the Jews in material matters.

Years earlier, the leaders of the Yerushalayim Messianic community had enjoined Sha’ul to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10). He wrote about the present collection on their behalf in 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 and 2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15. So well did he succeed in making Gentile tzedakah (“charity”; Mattityahu 6:1–4) toward the Jewish poor a part of his Gospel that this project was initiated not by him but by the Believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The gift was duly delivered (Acts 24:17).

²⁸ So when I have finished this task and made certain that they have received this fruit, I will leave for Spain and visit you on my way there; ²⁹ and I know that when I come to you, it will be with the full measure of the Messiah’s blessings. ^[1]

Sha’ul was on his way to Yerushalayim to bring a gift from the Gentile Kehilahs for the poor of the Jewish Kehilah in that city. He planned to come to Rome next. Little did he know he would be taken to Rome in custody (Acts 25:11–28:14, 30–31).

Our next post begins with the last theme of Romans, Closing Remarks.

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^[1] Romans 15:14–29.